Mother called to tell police her son threatened to blow up their Royal Oak home minutes before dying in fire

ROYAL OAK, MI -- When the sun rose, yellow caution tape clung to the wire-mesh fence at a home in Royal Oak near pieces of charred siding, the ripped-off side door and a tall beer can sitting atop a white patio table.

Inside about 1 a.m. Friday, 69-year-old Maxine Hadley died shortly after calling police to alert them that her son, a 50-year-old resident there, was threatening to blow up the house.

Police responded to find the house at 1708 N. Altadena Avenue engulfed in flames. Hadley's son's leg was badly scorched after futilely battling the overpowering blaze with a stream of water from the garden hose, said Royal Oak Police Chief Corrigan O'Donohue.

"The officers tried to make entry because we knew the victim was inside," said O'Donohue. "They were forced back by the smoke and the heat.

"The Royal Oak Fire Department got there and were able to quickly make entry into the house. They found the victim deceased in the basement."

There was a small propane tank but the fire started in a work room of the basement with "several other combustibles in there," the chief said, adding some neighbors reported hearing an explosion.

Royal Oak police are no strangers to the house.

"We've had many calls to this home for a variety of things including domestic disturbances ... going over the last decade," O'Donohue said.

"He was under the influence of something," the chief said but declined to share any theories as to why the suspect may have started a fire.

Hadley and her son were the only residents, but a neighbor, Matthew Bainter, was visiting at the time of the incident, police say.

Bainter lives across the street on the quaint street in Royal Oak near Red Run Golf Club and 12 Mile Road.